Monday, March 28, 2005

Hold Your Breath Syndrome

Growing up in Ann Arbor in a sports-oriented family, I thought it was a normal thing to expect your team to win. There is a special confidence that surrounds the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor (Pioneer) High School athletic programs. And why not? In football Michigan has won more games than any other University, while only one high school in the state has more victories than the Pioneers. The schools have a long, rich history in most other sports as well. While knowing that you can't win 'em all, there was an expectation that Michigan and Pioneer teams would win most of the time, including most of the "big" games, and they usually did.When I moved away from Ann Arbor, I found out that the situation is very different in other places. The first town where I moved was Kalamazoo, and any time the K-Wings or Western Michigan had something good going, when they reached the make-or-break point in a big game the stadium or arena would go silent as the fans held their collective breaths, waiting for their team to "blow it again"...and they almost always did. I call this the "Hold Your Breath Syndrome" and it has been quite evident where I currently live, in Tucson. In fact I'm sure it has a long, sad future here after what happened to the beloved Wildcats in the NCAA tournament on Saturday. Those of you who live in Ann Arbor or other similar places where this Hold Your Breath Syndrome does not exist should consider yourselves lucky. It's very different in most of the rest of the world, where this defeatist attitude unfortunately extends well beyond sports in many cases. GO BLUE!!! GO PURPLE!!!